Currently: 76°F
Millersville University, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, Precision Cobotics LLC and PrecisionForm Inc. of Lititz were awarded a $69,999 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to advance manufacturing innovation.
The funding will support a student research project the two schools will undertake with PrecisionForm and Precision Cobotics. The project is one of 42 funded as part of the Manufacturing PA’s fellowship program, which embeds the Commonwealth’s best and brightest students with local manufacturers to develop new technologies and advance innovation statewide.
“Automated Quality Inspection of Manufactured Durable Goods” will focus on integrating advanced robotics and industrial vision systems to automate inspections tasks, significantly enhancing precision, speed and production efficiency while reducing the dependency on manual labor, according to the grant proposal.
The grant will be used during the 2025-26 academic year to fund internships and support services for two Thaddeus Stevens College and four Millersville students as they develop an automated inspection system for a manufacturing process at PrecisionForm, according to Dr. John Haughery, assistant professor in Millersville University’s Department of Applied Engineering, Safety and Technology and principal investigator on the grant.
“This grant gives students the experience of innovating new technologies with the potential for far-reaching impacts across industries,” he said. “Today, we’re solving a technical problem for a local manufacturer; tomorrow, we’re working toward solving a broader STEM workforce problem for Pennsylvania.”
“With this grant, we are collaborating with our educational and business partners to enhance the experience of Millersville University and Thaddeus Stevens College students,” said Millersville President Daniel A. Wubah. “Our talented students will be well-prepared to make significant contributions to these two manufacturers and to their future employers. Working together, we will accelerate manufacturing innovation in the local area, the Commonwealth, and the nation.”
“For higher education to be the most effective it can be in today’s world, we need to partner directly with employers to ensure workforce needs are being met,” said Dr. Pedro A. Rivera II, president of Thaddeus Stevens College. “This project is a great example of doing just that: Opening doors for students to gain real-world experience while working directly with companies on both product development and end-use. This aligns with the mission of Thaddeus Stevens College to create access to educational pathways that support the state’s economy.”
Thaddeus Stevens College students will join the Millersville Robotics WorkX program, a partnership with Precision Cobotics that offers internships, job shadowing experiences and hands-on engineering projects to high school and university students to tackle real-world automation challenges.
Industry partners PrecisionForm and Precision Cobotics will benefit from the grant funding by engaging with an emerging talent pipeline and gaining innovative, practical solutions to their problems. They will provide matching funds to support the project.
“This will be a win-win as the students learn about critical inspection processes and the capabilities of technology, while PFI improves our employee engagement and delivers continuous improvement for our customers,” said PrecisionForm President Joshua Horvath.
The project provides students with access to leading-edge technologies, such as an AI-enabled vision system, and collaborative robots and other leading industry tools. “We are also providing access to our professional automation engineering staff, who will work with students and guide them on the many aspects of developing, building and deploying a successful automation project,” said John Bridgen, Precision Cobotics president.
Automated manufacturing is a priority of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, according to Dr. Marc Harris, dean of Millersville’s College of Science and Technology. “He supports a practical approach to training and educating workforce in ways that can be implemented immediately.”
“The Shapiro Administration is laser-focused on advancing Pennsylvania’s innovation economy, and investing in cutting-edge research projects like these is essential to accomplishing that,” said Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Rick Siger in announcing the latest round of grants. “Pennsylvania is home to some of the finest research institutions in the country, and I know the work of the students and projects funded here today will help us continue to be a national leader in manufacturing and innovation.”
